Related Articles

18 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif
DistantFred said on January 15th, 2010 at 9:33 am

“Their latest one is “world with goblins and merfolk and elves where there are giant floating rocks”

Wait… isn’t that what’s Serra’s Plane was? Back in the Urza’s Cycle?

ReplyReply
mygif

It’s not a marketing thing, it’s an anti-theft thing. Booster packs, being small, are easily, um…boosted. 🙂 The larger the package, the harder it is to conceal it.

This is also true of male prostitutes.

ReplyReply
mygif

What John Seavey said. This is what happens when your cards get sold at Wal*Mart.

There’s a bit of marketing in there in that they made it a funky shape to make it stand out from the other single booster packs of cards sealed into plastic tombs that hang from pegs, but the amount of material is about the same as what I see on the card rack at any Big Box Chain store – in fact this one seems to be entirely made of cardboard with no plastic at all, which makes it somewhat less wasteful (or at least more recyclable) than the typical sarcophagus that the Big Box stores seem to want to hang from their pegs.

ReplyReply
mygif

The MSRP for those premium foil packs are also $8.99 apiece. The extra packaging cost is pretty obviously being passed down to the consumer. It’s designed for a couple of things:

– Be Eye Catching (size)
– Be weighty (false impression of value)
– Try to justify spending for higher price (all foil cards!, again with the false impression of value)

It’s just their method of trying to move excess product at a premium price.

–Rawr

ReplyReply
mygif

So…

http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/31620.htm/

I really really wanted to see your name in that article…

ReplyReply
mygif

You know, this things been Gathering for nearly 20 years now. Isn’t it about time they started doing whatever it is they’ve been Gathering for?

Or are they suffering from mana burn?

ReplyReply
mygif

But they apparently just got rid of mana burn! So who knows, man.

ReplyReply
mygif
Sean D. Martin said on January 15th, 2010 at 2:52 pm

Been a lot of years since I’ve played, but… no more mana burn? Why?

ReplyReply
mygif

Because one too many ten-year-olds poked out their friend’s eye when they were informed that they got mana burn for forgetting to untap their lands, only those lands were totally untapped, Mark just bumped them with his feet when he went to get a coke.

ReplyReply
mygif
duquesne_pdx said on January 15th, 2010 at 3:34 pm

I am constantly reminded how very glad I am that I never succumbed to Crack, the Gathering. It was a huge money sink when it started, and it’s only gotten worse.

ReplyReply
mygif

Its not that bad a money sink if you don’t chase rare cards. After tournaments at one of the local game shops I’d wander the floor and just pick up dozens of common and uncommon cards that the kids would toss to the floor since they weren’t rare enough. I haven’t bought a booster pack in YEARS and I’ve got cards from all kinds of later sets…

ReplyReply
mygif

Having worked at a gaming store, I can totally confirm that the size of this package is solely intended to be a theft deterrent. Booster packs piled neatly in a box works fine on a counter vigilantly watched by a cashier, better yet under glass or on a rack behind the cash wrap. For the big box stores that want to hang it on a rack and forget about it? They need something a little less perfectly pocket sized.

Cause the way kids are with Magic, there are kids I saw that would never in a million years steal a candy bar, but would rip off a pack of magic in a new york minute. The pewter Warhammer Minis on cards are almost as bad.

ReplyReply
mygif
Somberbrero said on January 16th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

I believe the man holding up those cards is Robert Florence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2esVjqYEbk

ReplyReply
mygif

They got rid of mana burn in 10th edition rules. In 15 years of playing I have taken mana burn maybe twice. From a minimalist game design standpoint, the idea of keeping mana burn, a rule which comes into effect only rarely and is usually used only to abuse certain cards (say, a card that activates only if you have less health than the opponent) just didn’t make sense.

ReplyReply
mygif

BlackBloc: They didn’t get rid of mana burn in 10th Edition. They got rid of it in “Magic 2010.” Which is abbreviated as “M10” on the cards (and was released in 2009, just like car model years, which are also fucking obnoxious that way). But it’s the 11th core set. Nice job, WOTC.

ReplyReply
mygif
guyincorporated said on January 19th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

My understanding is that they got rid of mana burn because it was cramping their ability to implement certain cards.

For example: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46724

They made this card “you control target player’s next turn”, only to find that the smart players would just tap all of their opponent’s lands and pass the turn instead of what wizards intended when they created the card in the first place.

ReplyReply
mygif
guyincorporated said on January 19th, 2010 at 3:04 pm

Whoops – meant to link Sorin, there.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=195403

Mindslaver has a caveat about no mana burn.

ReplyReply
mygif

guyincorporated: actually, the ‘no mana burn’ caveat is in the rules for controlling another player’s turn, and not just on Mindslaver. Blackbloc’s got it: they got rid of mana burn because it rarely, if ever, actually mattered.

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments